Blog #12: Final Blog Post: Society and Technology: Our Relationship

 Introduction:

When it comes to any new technology, we enter a tug-of-war fight between pros and cons, as we bask and enjoy the pros, and retaliate and fight against the cons. Think of any invention, and one can name a pro and con of it, and how it has effected society. But lets also consider how as time went on, we adapted, attempted to correct, and reign in the technology as best we could, just how we are programmed to.

Within this blog, I will tackle this relationship through three stages. Past, discussing our adaption to a previous technology, Present, a current invention we are currently learning how to adapt with, and Personal, an example of how I have adapted to technology myself!

 Analysis:

During our existence as humans, we have invented, tackled, and conquered several technological achievements, such as steam engines, telephones, and electricity! However, I think the greatest example of society adapting to a new technology, would be the printing press.

Invented in the 1400's by Johannes Gutenberg, the printing press revolutionized the world due to creating the dissemination of ideas on paper quickly and at a much faster pace than handwriting (Source). This led to more people learning to read, educating people on current events, cultural practices could spread, and businesses could easily advertise. It changed the way we see the world, but came with its consequences too.

Anyone with a printing press could print whatever they wanted, which increased the role of disinformation, misinformation, and misinformation in everyday life. Malicious people could use this to incite immoral viewpoints and harmful information to others, like hate speech. The printing press was also still clunky, expensive, and relatively slow compared to today. 

Humanity still struggles with all types of misinformation and hate speech today, but we have strove to improve upon it with consequences against doing such things. We also have improved upon the technology, with printing press leading to typewriters, and typewriters leading to the computers we have today!

This brings us to the present, with the current technology I'd like to discuss, artificial intelligence. While having been conceptualized in the 1950's, AI has made a major leap to the forefront of society in recent years, especially today. AI has the chance to revolutionize several aspects of our lives, with easing of workflows due to its generative specialty in analyzing our trends, to the immense leaps it has made in the healthcare field through analyzing large datasets.

However, like all technology, it has come with its magnitude of cons, many of which we have not begun to solve, like intense energy consumption, misinformation, and its damage to the art world. But our past trends show that, with time, we will conquer these issues, one way or another, and I am hopeful for that.

Personal Connection & Conclusion:

Moving to the personal aspect, my life is deeply connected to technology! Every large marker in my life has had technology assisting me along the way, greatly influencing me in both ways, but more good than bad.

The mentioned piece that broke:

One of my greatest learning moments and achievements in my life, was building my personal computer by myself. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, I became deeply interested in building my own computer from scratch, and began studying all there was about computer engineering. My dad offered to pay for the PC, if I did it by myself with no help, so I felt motivated to complete it!

When all the parts arrived, I began putting the pieces together, but accidentally ruined one of the pieces while putting it together without knowing. Once I finally finished it, I couldn't get it to work, and got upset and frustrated, which led me to quit for two to three months, giving up on my goal.

My father talked me back into it, and I reproached it with a clear mind, wanting to never give up, as I told myself it was okay to make mistakes, we are only human after all. I eventually got a new part, and got my computer to work, but I didn't want to forget that important lesson I learned. So I framed the broken piece, and it now sits by my bed, reminding me not to give up when things go wrong, but it also reminds me of my close relationship with technology itself.

The completed computer:

I plan to go into the field of video game design as a job, as I am currently studying computer science and game design in college, so technology will always be deeply intertwined with me in my every day life. That means I must always be ready to adapt, overcome the cons of technology, and push forward to using that technology for benefit!

Blog #11: What I Learned About During the Second EOTO Presentations

Introduction:

During the second round of Each One Teach One, or EOTO, presentations, I learned about several different topics on several social topics, such as alternative media, echo chambers, whistleblowers, and the Overton Window. I was really impressed at the wealth of information I learned from these presentations, and enjoyed the topics thoroughly!

What I learned:

The first topic I found interesting was alternative media, which are "media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media (such as mainstream media or mass media)" (Source).

The pros of alternative media are found through its opinions it can offer on niche topics, the unfiltered information due to not having to keep a sponsor, and readers can feel more connected to the media source, due to its smaller size. However, alternative media can struggle due to its lesser funding, and difficulty in accessing stories in hard to get places. The effect of alternative media is the creation of a space for political analysis that isn't narrated by large companies because they don't have to chase or worry about making a profit.

The next topic I enjoyed was echo chambers, which is when the stream of information and the environment around it creates a bubble, which enforces preexisting thought patterns.

Although echo chambers are a negative concept, the pros are the people inside can find others who share their opinion easily, and it can create a tight knit community and connection. However, the cons are prevalent, as echo chambers can cause disinformation, it restricts the world view of those inside, causing tunnel vision, and generates distrust on opposing sides.

That brings us to whistleblowers, which is someone who is apart of an organization who reveals information about the organizations wrong doings to the public.

The societal impact of whistleblowers is wide, as it brings along culture shifts, distrust in the organizations, disillusionment to the people, and policy reform. Some notable names of popular whistleblowers are Edward Snowden, who raised his concerns on the global surveillance programs in the NSA, and Chelsea Manning, who released a large set of classified documents of the U.S. Army torturing and abusing prisoners'.

Finally, the Overton Window is the range of political possibilities and range of ideas that the public is willing to consider and accept. Politicians tend to focus on this to maximize election chances, as it brings in the most votes. 

Prime examples of the Overton Window in use is same sex marriage, prohibition, women's suffrage, slavery, and IVF, as all of these topics became more popular as time went on, so politicians used them to get voted into their respective offices. The pros of the Overton Window include the allowing of meaningful legislation to forward these changes, but has the con of the changes taking a long time to fix.

Conclusion:

I enjoyed learning about all of these topics by my fellow classmates, as they brought well presented information in clean and professional presentations! My favorite was learning about the Overton Window, as it is a prevalent topic that we can even see today in our current governmental elections.

Blog #10: In The Age of AI: Review on AI

 

Introduction:

AI, or artificial intelligence, is one of the most double-edged inventions of our time as it is littered with pros and cons. Ranging from privacy issues, danger to the arts, and intense energy consumption, AI comes with plenty of cons, but its effects in healthcare and increase in productivity counteract the cons due to its efficiency in data analytics. 

It is up to us to weigh the pros against the cons and decide how we choose to interact with this new technology, and how it will effect our lives. This blog will focus on what I deem the pros and cons of AI, and my opinions on the technology.

Analysis:

First, lets cover the negatives, as they are serious consequences to artificial intelligence that we must discuss, and that I wish was common knowledge to most.

One of the most unknown effects of AI, which is one of the most prevalent in my opinion, is AI's outrageous power consumption when prompted. While doing a Google search, you average about 0.3 watt-

Source: Science Direct Journal

hours of electricity, while a AI search takes about 10 times that, at 3 watt-hours (Source). But with most search engines now including built in AI summaries when you search, that only increases the watt-hours required, shown on the graph on the left. 

This is a major concern for those who may be more environmentally conscious, and most don't even know the intense amount of energy a simple search consumes now. With an increased amount of electricity to consume, that requires more electricity to be made, which consumes more fossil fuels, produces more carbon emissions, and is a serious danger to our lives.

The next con to artificial intelligence is privacy. Artificial intelligence is run by being fed a large database, which helps it learn and be able to answer questions and prompts. However, AI is fed this information by data collecting companies, whether the person consents to having their information shared or not. This leads to major concerns, which connects perfectly with my next con, the danger it presents to the arts.

Included within the information that is shared to AI, specifically generative AI that can create images, like DALL-E, is multiple pieces of artwork done by millions of artists, without their consent. Meaning any piece of AI-art can be considered plagiarism, due to the lack of consent or credit to the original artists (Source). 

This worries me, as I have plenty of friends who are artists, who worry about their jobs being taken by AI, as people are less likely to commission their art. However, one thing that AI will NEVER be able to replicate, is the human soul and creativity. AI can not replicate the intense emotion and meaning that goes into every piece of art ever made, which makes it unique.

Which brings me to the much needed pros in the sea of cons! With most technology, we will adapt to its usage, and will find ways to integrate it into our way of life, and use it as a tool.

The impact of AI has been tremendous in the healthcare field due to its incredible ability to sort through millions of datasets quickly and find patterns within the data. This is revolutionary for diagnosing patients with diseases, as it can rule out human error in detecting certain illnesses, which can increase both the productivity, quality, and swiftness of healthcare! This is one of my personal favorite pros to AI, as it can help ease human suffering due to illnesses, and may be a driving force in the battle against notorious diseases such as cancer.

Conclusion:

Although there are many cons within artificial intelligence, I am confident that collectively, we will find a way to combat these negatives through research and time, and that the pros of artificial intelligence will shine brightly.